As a solution to unlocking robotics talent in SA, the Centre for Mining Innovation at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and National Instruments' Stephen Plumb have agreed to hold a mobile robotics competition.
According to the RoboticsSA, the competition will be held during the annual Robotics and Mechatronics Symposium. “Current plans are that the symposium will be from 23 to 25 November in Gauteng,” it says.
It is hoped that some of the work going into the completion will be submitted to the conference for peer review and publication, and a session could be devoted to these presentations depending on the number of accepted papers in the normal peer review process.
The CSIR centre has taken a keen interest in robotics research in SA as a solution to unlocking extensive gold resources currently uneconomically 'mineable' in South African gold mines.
“The competition has, therefore, taken on a mining theme, so all the tasks in the competition mimic in some way a task that could be automated in an underground autonomous mine of the future,” it says.
“In the previous years, it has only been one or two teams that have managed to come through with a working robot to the competition, even though there have been upwards of four universities starting out interested. Basing it on undergraduate entries has meant teams start from scratch every year,” he explains.
Opening it to anybody means that universities can put post-graduates onto the project and create some continuity in the team from year to year, building the competency and complexity of their entry - therefore, doing better each year, Green says.
Hopefully, in that way, the competition can also grow in complexity, as we develop graduate engineers ready to tackle SA's robotic mining opportunities, he says.
According to RoboticsSA, the competition seeks to be inclusive rather than exclusive, so any robot meeting the criteria of fitting into the arena is eligible for entering the completion. Any hardware platform is welcome and any software architecture invited, it adds.
“The tasks may be executed via blind tele-operation [remote control]. The operator will not be able to see the robot, they will be physically separated from the robot arena, having to rely on the robot's sensors and wireless communications to 'see' what is happening in the arena,” it says.
The team may be of any size and comprise of post-graduate students as well as undergraduates. Academic institutions will be competitive, and industry entries are welcomed as technology demonstrators.
Entries close in June 2011.
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